


ShelterTale

by docemoon145



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Monsters Like The Underground, F/M, Gaster is king, Gen, Monsters Underground, Multi, Prince Sans, Prince papyrus, Sans has a human fetish, Sans likes humans, Shelter!Sans, ShelterTale, Slow Burn, Undertale AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-23 17:45:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 19,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17084840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/docemoon145/pseuds/docemoon145
Summary: An UnderTale AU where W.D. Gaster is King before the war instead of Asgore Dreemurr. Gaster is not as naive a ruler and sees the war with humans coming years before it arrives. By then, he has already led monster kind to create a safe place for themselves underground. They willingly retreat there as soon as the war begins, sustaining minimal casualties, and gradually create an underground kingdom. Sans and Papyrus are the first and second princes. The barrier exists to keep humans out rather than monsters in.There will likely be crossovers in the future of the story.





	1. Call The Retreat

**Author's Note:**

> Posting this here because it’s sadly unsearchable on Wattpad. I’m me posting one work in two places. I’m not stealing it, don’t worry XD. I did do some minor editing while I was at it tho.
> 
> **This work is not up to my current standards. At some point, if I still care, I will be redoing the whole thing. Until then, please don't ask for more (not that anyone does). I have better works you can check out instead. :3**

The head of the royal guard was a tall and strong monster. He stood a full head taller than any other servant in the king's palace, with powerful muscles and magic at the same time. He was a man of excellent moral quality and honor, and he was always prepared to do what was necessary, as long as the king required it. Because of all of this, it meant a lot to the other monsters of the kingdom seeing him bow his head so sincerely to King Wingdings.

Asgore believed the king was a man worthy of his respect, and so the other monsters believed the same. Of course, King Wingdings was more than fit to be king, but his talents were more... subtle. Simple minded folk couldn't see them as clearly as they could see Asgore's.

They were about to know why Wingdings, and not Asgore, was their king.

"My king," Asgore got down to his knees, armor clinking, and paid respects to his old friend. "It is as you feared. The humans intend to go to war with us."

A few tiles ahead, a tall and thin figure stood with his back to the royal guard captain, hands clasped behind him. There was no flesh on these hands, or anywhere else on the king's body, seeing as he was a skeleton monster.

The bony king watched the moon through the tall window, his dark robes cascading around him, tailored so that he could look regal even being so slim and physically powerless.

"Yes, Asgore, I know. I knew the moment you came into this room by the look on your face."

"It isn't as though we weren't prepared for this," the king continued. "We have been working on the artificial environments in the Mt Ebbot shelter for three years already. I'm only relieved the core was finished in time. Without that, things would have become dreadful indeed."

The royal guard captain allowed a small smile to touch his face; kids were his soft spot (though he was completely covered in soft fur). "The prince's help sped up progress by more than a month. He is very bright, just like someone else I know."

Wingdings smiled slightly, but he kept his feelings safely in check. "Sans is just lazy. He put effort into his academics because they were easier than his other training."

Asgore smiled warmly. The king was obviously jesting. Considering the first prince's condition, he could hardly be expected to become a powerful mage or warrior. He knew the king was very proud of him, but it was true the first prince was lazy. If King Wingdings went too easy on Sans and paid him all the credit he was due, he would immediately try to slack off. What a precocious kid.

Soon, the gravity of the situation pulled the corners of Asgore's mouth down. "My king, may I have your orders?"

Wingdings sighed and turned away from the window, violet light shining in his eye sockets. "As we decided, evacuate the women, children, and elderly, along with those of academic and cultural talent. The rest, the warriors and the professional mages who aren't meant to teach others, will stay behind to stall the human army. Once everyone is inside the underground shelter, the elder mages will erect the barrier using the magic amplifiers. At that time, any monsters still on the surface should flee to the underground. The barrier won't allow humans to pass."

There would be no war. Wingdings knew acutely how fragile monsters were compared to humans. His own son was a critical example of this frailty. So they would run, along with everything needed to rebuild their civilization underground. The barrier would stay firm for hundreds of years, long enough for humanity to pass through several generations and cease their warmongering ways.

Wingdings was a boss monster with the potential to live a long life. Hopefully, he would still be alive to lead them back out into the sun again.

_Goodness, I'm already three hundred years old. What am I thinking?_


	2. Erect The Barrier

Wingdings stood among the elder mages, a magic amplifier strapped around his chest as he channeled the magic to make the barrier. This had to be a shield even humans couldn't penetrate, so not even the king of monsters could sit back and watch if his skills would be of any help. The magic amplifiers had been made from human souls found lying around over the centuries, and each was only good for a single use.

Behind his back, all of monster kind watched the creation of the barrier. His seven-year-old son was with them, apparently trying to doze off while standing. 

***Seeing those you care about depending on you; it fills you with determination.**

The elder mages all chanted in unison. Soon, the barrier was erected. The magic amplifiers fizzled and died—except the one the king was wearing started sparking until it suddenly exploded. He flew back and landed prone. A magical surge had flown back through the device into him, cracking his skull in two places from the pressure.

"Your majesty!" Asgore and several others ran over to check on him, and the first prince woke up. Even that lazy child broke into a jog to check on him sooner.

"dad?! what happened? are you alright?"

Wingdings groaned and sat up, rubbing his fractured skull. It hurt badly, and his head was swimming, but a king needn't worry his people by showing these things, so he gave his son and servants a reassuring smile. "I am alright," he said. "It's just a small wound. It will heal with a little green magic."

The king was surprised to see that his attempt at reassurance got looks of trepidation rather than relief.

"What's the matter? Does it look that bad?" He tried to help them relax, but their looks only got more serious.

"Your majesty, please nod if you can understand us," Asgore said in a low voice.

King Wingdings bobbed his skull and asked, "Asgore, could you please explain why you're all looking at me like that?"

The captain of the royal guard put his hand on his chest and sighed in relief. "So you can. That's a relief. We have no idea what you're saying, your majesty."

"What? What do you mean by that? Asgore?" King Wingdings looked at his son who was staring with wide eye sockets. "Sans?"

"uh, sorry, pops. i couldn't understand a word you just said."

Wingdings stared in shock, then lowered his head, putting his chin in his hand. _This is not good. Hopefully green magic can fix it._

Healers soon came to treat the king, however, his wounds were saturated with human determination and they resisted going back to the way they were. His skull remained cracked and his words unintelligible. At least his discomfort was gone.


	3. Speak In Hands

A week later, the king sat on his bed in the palace, trying not to scratch at his wounds. By now, the healers had sealed the cracks in his skull as well as they could, but scars still remained, and his speech had not returned to him. Captain Asgore and Prince Sans we're both in the room with him, apparently unsure what to say or how to act.

Wingdings knew they couldn't understand him, but he couldn't help trying to lighten the mood regardless. "This is a bit inconvenient. I was supposed to give an encouraging speech to the people today. Asgore, perhaps you could give it in my place as my scape **goat**?"

The royal guard captain's expression sunk, but Sans covered his mouth to hold in a hiss of laughter.

"Son?"

"Prince?"

Both adults looked at the first prince with the same baffled expression.

"heh heh. scape _goat_. good one, dad."

"Prince, you understood what he was saying?!" Asgore bellowed, his voice full of hope and amazement.

"Son, is it true?"

The first prince put his hands in his jacket pockets and shrugged. "well, i had a whole week to listen to the pattern. it's just like a verbal word scramble; it's not that hard to figure out, y'know?"

At both of their urging, Sans begrudgingly wrote out a cipher translating the sounds in the king's speech to the sounds in their language. Asgore studied it and frowned. "Even with this, I don't think I'll be able to easily understand your orders, your majesty."

The first prince's cognitive ability was an exception. Few would ever be able to comprehend such a muddled language. Wingdings could understand that much by looking at the cipher. "Perhaps sign language would be easier," he murmured while gesturing the same to Asgore.

"Ah! Sign language, huh?" The giant goat man rubbed his fluffy head sheepishly. "I haven't had to use it much, so I'm afraid I'm a bit rusty, but I think I'll be able to understand."


	4. Learn To Pretend

Asgore was loved by the people, so he was given the duty of speaking the king's will to them during public displays. With those duties covered and the smaller territory he had to manage, Wingdings’ duties were much fewer. He was able to spend much more time resting and spending time with his sons. The second prince, Papyrus, was still an infant, but he wouldn’t be for long, so he was glad to have this time.

"with you two hanging out so much, i wonder if pap'll learn to talk like you, dad," Sans leaned over and chuckled.

Wingdings grabbed the baby bones who was crawling around on the floor (wrapped in thick and soft clothes to keep him from hurting himself) and held him in his lap. "That would be troubling. I wouldn't be able to understand a word of what he said."

His first son laughed. "i think you'll be fine. i'm talking in that cipher right now, so, i guess it works both ways."

"Are you?" Wingdings was surprised. He hadn't even noticed a difference in the way Sans was talking. "Hm. More importantly, aren't you missing physical training right now?"

Sans shrugged and plopped down on the floor beside his father and brother. "why bother? my HP doesn't increase even if i put effort into it, and i'm already tired all the time without moving around that much. besides, i was in bed all day saturday because i tripped and broke my leg. i like resting, but that's got **tibia** little much."

"You skipped your magic training yesterday as well," Wingdings mentioned, playing with Papyrus by holding his hands in the air with blue magic and tickling his ribs.

Sans shrugged, "no matter what magic i use, my damage caps at one. couldn't even scratch the training dummy with one of your blasters. heh. hilarious, right?" The smile permanently on Sans's face didn't reach his eyes. On the contrary, he seemed to be close to tears.

"Anything else?" Wingdings asked cryptically. He could see words on the edge of his son's teeth.

"why do you still have me take lessons?" Sans asked. "i'm worthless. i'm way too weak to be king, and you have papyrus, so why waste your efforts on me?"

Sans felt a sudden tug of blue magic slide him closer to his father. When he was seated right beside him, he felt a little boney bundle placed in his lap. He looked down at the laughing baby bones and started playing with him unconsciously.

"You'll leave all of your royal duties to your brother? Alright. Then it will be Papyrus's duty to protect all of monster kind. In that case, who will protect Papyrus?"

"you're saying it's me, right? but how could i protect anybody?"

"Sans, did you know? Skeletons are some of the weakest monsters there are. Without blue magic, we can't even do the daily tasks other monsters take on with ease. Did you ever wonder, Sans, why I am the king and not someone stronger like Asgore?"

"well, your magic is on par with the elder mages, right?"

"In that case, why not any of the other elder mages, then? Why are none of them king? I am not the most talented among them."

"heh, i know it's not your charisma. who would choose a bag of bones like you over captain fluffybuns?"

Wingdings gave a dry chuckle and volunteered the answer. "Regal bearing, Sans. Composure in any situation, a mind focused on the people, and the will to do whatever is necessary to save as many people as possible. My magic is powerful, but my place isn't on the battlefield or patrolling the castle halls. A king is the mind, will, and heart behind the progress of their nation. As long as I do my duty to the best of my ability, my subjects serve me well and we live in peace."

Sans was a clever boy. Wingdings could see he'd understood what he was trying to say. Still, the boy only looked gloomier.

"i probably won't ever have the chance to be king, though. i'm a prince, but no matter how much people coddle me, there's no way my HP will stay at max until you're too old to rule. something will happen--it doesn't matter what--i'll take a point of damage and dust on the spot. i just don't see the point."

Wingdings took his oldest son into his arms, stroking the child's skull as he made his robes wet with tears. "Oh, Sans. I love that you take after my intelligence, but it does mean you face difficult thoughts like these earlier in life than others. I want to tell you a story from my past; the reason I believe you will find a way to prosper as long as you have that bright skull of yours."

Sans sniffled, and the king took it as a sign to continue. "I had a problem of my own when I was younger. You see, my father had very high standards, but I was meek. I wanted to impress him, but I was too shy to put forth my best effort. One day, a friend gave me a pep talk that inspired me. I showed my father what I was capable of... and he was furious."

Sans lifted his head in shock, tears still on his cheekbones. "what? why?"

"My intellect didn't develop at an even rate. Even as a brilliant child, I had only a vague concept of moral right and wrong. Wanting to help out somehow, I created a cybernetic armor for the dogs guarding the palace, but in order to do it, I'd sacrificed the lives of three of said guards."

Sans looked mildly disgusted, and Wingdings gave a small chuckle. "I was quickly made to understand that my mentality wasn't suitable for a ruler. For years, I continued to have difficulties understanding what others found obvious. I thought I would never be fit to lead. But, as you can see, I made it here in the end, and no one would find my decisions reprehensible."

"so, your emotions just appeared eventually? you think my body will fix itself someday?"

"No, not at all," Wingdings shook his head. "My moral compass never awakened. Instead, I found workarounds. I studied emotions and psychology on an academic level, practiced the principles of theater and sociology. It wasn't until you were born that feelings of love woke up in me for real, Sans. If you can't feel, pretend you can. If you're weak, pretend to be strong."

"pretend? that's a lot to ask."

"Why? In battle, the strongest isn't always the winner, but people think of winners as strong. If your attacks are weak, strike more often, if your HP is low, don't take damage. If your defense is fragile, don't get hit. If you're too tired to move, pretend to be lazing by choice. The humans had a good saying: fake it until you make it. As long as you win in the end, people will think you're strong, no matter how weak you are."

Sans just stared for a while, his skull processing the advice more slowly than usual. "that's... heh. i guess i can be king by following that advice. but, i can't fool myself, dad. how am i supposed to live with these feelings of worthlessness?"

Wingdings stroked the top of his son's skull and tilted his head. "Does a drowning monster save himself, Sans? No. In the ocean, no land monster has the stamina to survive alone; someone must throw him a lifeline. Sans, you will live on for the people who you care about and for the people who care about you. If there is no one, you will live on for some other goal or purpose. Besides, your living doesn't hurt anyone, so there's no reason to stop."

"fine," Sans chuckled bitterly. "but what i meant was how do i stop hating myself? it's exhausting."

Wingdings looked up at the ceiling. "Hmm. I don't know. But I think most people hate themselves to some extent, so it's probably fine to go on like that."

"that's some pretty trash advice, dad."

"Sheh heh heh. Is it? I'm sorry if I'm not very good at this kind of thing. The answers that helped me through life won't necessarily suit you." Suddenly, a pain shot through Wingdings’ skull where it was fractured, and he held it with his hands, "Mn."

"you alright, dad?"

"I'm fine," he said dismissively. "It will pass. But, the doctors told me to rest when it flares up like this, so I'll go lay down for a while. You may stay here and play with your brother, if you'd like. As a reward for being honest about difficult topics, I won't hold you to your obligations just this once."

Sans teased Papyrus with a monster doll and watched the king leave. He couldn't help but feel a dark sense of worry that something wasn't as it seemed. But, even so... 

***The hope that you can become strong; it fills you with determination.**


	5. Lose An Eye

The lights in Wingdings’ room turned on and the place was suddenly a mess of activity. Guards and servants all came and rushed him awake, pleading that he come to the medical bay. When the king got out of them that Sans was injured, he was able to increase his pace somewhat.

"Sans!" Wingdings burst into the healing bay, signing with an extra pair of hands conjured with magic. "Where is he? Is he alright?"

The healers took Wingdings to a bed where Sans was sitting, crying as the royal doctor, Toriel, wrapped bandages around his head and over his right eye. Wingdings’ hopes immediately dropped. If bandages were necessary, that meant healing magic was ineffective. It would be a serious wound without a doubt.

The king knelt before his son and held his cheekbones between both hands, bringing their faces close.

"It's going to be alright, my son. Everything's going to be alright."

He was expecting, on some level, for Sans to bury his skull in his father's rib cage and cry it out, but the boy just stared down listlessly, tears dripping.

"Tell me what happened," the king spoke and signed to Toriel.

"It seems the prince was practicing magic and he took a beam attack to the eye, your majesty. There must not have been any hostility behind the attack, considering his HP was not affected, but nobody was around to see what happened."

"So, what's the damage?"

The royal healer, who also happened to be Asgore's wife, lowered her shaggy white head. "It is hard to say right now. It is possible he will be blinded in his left eye, but there is still a chance it will recover in time. However, it is likely his ability to glow that eye will be impaired forever."

 _Oh dear_. Skeletons, being skeletons, had limited facial expressions. The ability to make their eyes glow with magic was very important to their social and emotional development. Sans was already struggling with self-esteem issues; he didn't need this right now. _Can't this family go a year without an accident?_

"I understand." Wingdings stopped signing so that only Sans would understand him. "You did well, Sans." The boy looked up in blank confusion. "It didn't quite work out this time, but you were training to find a workaround, weren't you? This is considerably less disastrous than my first attempt. Perhaps you will surpass me in the end. I'm proud of you, son."

Finally, the boy broke down and cried out, pressing into his father's ribs and holding him tightly.

"There there. I'm here for you, my son."


	6. Tell The Truth

Somehow, the royal family was able to live for another year without any more big accidents. Papyrus was two years old now, and he was developing into a healthy young skeleton, full of enthusiasm and life. In fact, it was seeing Papyrus sprout up that made the others realize that Sans's growth rate had been quite slow. These days he was barely growing at all. No doubt it was a consequence of his low HP.

But, while Papyrus was doing excellently in a physical and magical sense, another area was left somewhat lacking.

"Now, Papyrus, what sound does this animal make?" Wingdings pointed at a picture of a horse and asked.

"ARF ARF!" The babybones tilted his skull and grinned.

"No, Papyrus. This is a horse. Horses say neigh. It's dogs that bark." He flipped back a few pages. "See here? This is a dog."

Little Papyrus just giggled and rolled onto his back, grabbing his socked feet with his gloved hands.

"he's still just a baby, dad. what did you expect?" Wingdings was startled by Sans teleporting into the room and jumped slightly.

"Ah, well, I thought we might have another genius on our hands. Perhaps it's still too soon to tell." Wingdings looked at Papyrus already trying to stand. He fell repeatedly, but his soft clothes cushioned him every time. "He's certainly more energetic than you were." For a skeleton, since they lacked muscles, they often didn't learn to walk until they were three years old, or sometimes even later. Sans had refused to walk until he was five years old, and then only because he could use blue magic. He finally started walking unaided when he was six.

"no surprise there," Sans shrugged, plopping down beside Wingdings.

"You're getting quite good at that special magic of yours."

"heh, thanks. i get a lot of practice. not walking all over this huge palace saves me a lot of energy."

"Right. Your mood seems good. I take it training went well?"

Sans rubbed the back of his head and avoided his father's warm smile. "yeah. maybe your advice wasn't so bad after all. except for the last part. i still think there must be a better way."

"If you find it, do let me know."

"ok." Sans was quiet for a moment, but Wingdings could tell he had something to say, so he waited patiently. "hey, dad, i've been thinking about something for a while now. i was never sure when or how to bring it up, or if i even should, but i've made up my mind."

"What is it, Sans? You can tell me anything, you know."

"yeah. i know how much you value open honesty in people. so, uh, be honest with me. you didn't really start feeling emotions just because i was born, right? that was just a lie to make me feel better when i was down."

Wingdings sat quietly, and Sans let out a chuckle.

"it's fine, okay? i'm not mad at you because of it. in fact, i think it means a lot that every nice thing you do for me, pap, and everyone in the underground is a conscious decision. you work really hard to be nice. it makes me believe that... anyone can be good... if they just try."

The king spoke quietly. "Is that how it is?" He looked down at his hands, staring through the holes in his palms--a recessive trait neither of his sons had inherited. "Do you mind telling me what made you realize it? It's better if I can cover my mistakes; people will feel more at ease if they believe their king loves them dearly."

"your mistake, huh?" Sans shrugged and flipped his hood up. He hated wearing high-class clothes and preferred soft, easy ones--probably because he would often nap throughout the day—sometimes quite suddenly. "well, i don't think a king full of emotions could have made the decisions you did. you spent years building this shelter in the underground for everyone; you knew the humans would go to war with us. even so, you waited until they attacked to evacuate everyone. monsters died because you waited, but you had to wait anyway. you needed everyone to be convinced that taking shelter underground was their best option."

Wingdings tilted his head. "And what else? If it were just that, everyone else in the underground would have found me out too."

"what else, huh? probably, what sealed it for me was that story you told me before; the one with the guard dogs. that story and your actions preparing for the war just seemed too similar."

"I suppose that does make sense." Wingdings lowered his head in defeat, but he was smiling. "I'm sorry for lying to you, Sans, although I still think it was the right thing to do at the time. I want you and Papyrus to grow up feeling happy and loved—"

"because that will mean mentally stable royal heirs and a more prosperous and peaceful future for monster kind, right?"

The king chuckled. "My, you do understand me, don't you? Yes, that is the reason. I would be lying if I said I love either of you, but I do care for you in my own special way. Your mother would give you both proper love if she was still here, but it's just me. I hope I can be enough."

"don't worry, pops--not that you can. i'll make sure papy gets enough love to cover your and mom's portions as well as my own. and, like i said, i don't hate you just because you can't feel anything. i'm just happy you chose to become a good person instead of a bad one; you could have been whatever you wanted without ever feeling guilty, but you chose to walk the high road. i admire you for that. it kind of makes a lazy person like me want to work a little harder."

Wingdings chuckled. "Sans, you and I both know you aren't as lazy as we tell everyone. Be careful you don't start to believe that lie yourself."

Sans was always smiling, but it felt like he was frowning underneath. "dad... can you get me permission to use gerson's labs again? like back when i was helping build the core? i'm... really sick of not having the energy to study, train, play with pap, or do just about anything besides talking, and i had a few ideas that could amount to something."

"Something like an external energy source, perhaps? An artificial secondary HP bar?"

Sans's skull whipped around. The white light in his left eye and grayish light in his right eye were quivering. "you..."

"I'd also given it some thought, and that was the best solution I was able to come up with. I was actually thinking of making something in secret, but my headaches have been so frequent lately... I forget what I was doing when they hit, and it just kept slipping my mind. But, since you've also expressed an interest... Why don't we work on it together, sort of like a father-son project?"

"that..." Sans felt tears gather in his functional eye. "that sounds great."


	7. Build Something Good

"Guh. Uhh." Wingdings held his head and slowly lowered himself to the floor. Sans put down his notes and coffee and knelt at his side.

"another headache? they're happening every other day now."

"I'm fine. It isn't a bad one." After a minute passed, Wingdings felt he was alright to stand and dusted off his lab coat. "What were we just doing?"

"we were about to test the Hope Device with some controlled magical shocks. the last nine tests were flawless, so if this one goes well too, we'll be ready to test it with a live monster wearing it. heh, besides me, of course."

"Yes, of course. Alright, begin the experiment."

"sure thing, pops."

Sans pressed a button on a little laser-like device (sort of like a mini Gaster Blaster) and it shot out a ray of magic. The ray hit a little ring-like ornament and a health bar appeared over it, decreasing steadily before automatically recovering after the laser shut off.

"perfect again. we're ready for practical use tests now."

"Let's start right away," Wingdings said excitedly. "I'll wear it while you shoot the laser."

"dad, i know you have plenty of HP, but that still makes me a little nervous."

"It will be fine. The laser is too weak to really hurt me even if the Hope Device fails."

"alright, but don't keep quiet if it hurts at all. i'll shut it off right away."

"Of course." Wingdings opened the hinge on the device and hooked it around one of his ribs, then held his hand in front of the laser. "Go ahead, Sans."

"okie dokie."

The laser hit him, but the king didn't feel it at all. He could see the Hope Device's HP bar appear above his own, depleting in its stead. The laser shut off and the Hope Brace recovered its missing HP in a few seconds.

"It works!" he exclaimed. "It really works!"

"NYEH HEH! WE DIB IT!" Little Papyrus celebrated from his high chair, covered in spaghettios. He didn't have any idea what they'd done, but his input raised the mood regardless.

"alright, fantastic," Sans winked. "we've managed to create an artificial second health bar. now the real question is if having artificial HP will make me any more energetic."

"There's only one way to answer that question," the king said, removing the Hope Device and passing it to Sans. The first prince clipped it to his sternum where it wouldn't shake around much and tried to feel things out. "huh. y'know, it's hard to tell."

"I couldn't feel much difference either," Wingdings admitted. "Perhaps if you wear it for a few days, you'll notice a change in your overall energy levels."

"yeah, that's what i'm gonna do. **hope** it works."


	8. Get A Checkup

"BROTHER! LOOK WHAT I HAVE!"

Sans turned his head to see little Papyrus running over with a nice cream in each hand. "hey, pap. is one of those for me?"

"YEP!"

"how **nice** of you."

The little prince frowned. "WAS THAT A PUN? YOU DIDN'T EVEN TRY WITH THAT ONE!"

"aw, don't be so **cold** , bro. you're usually the **sweet** est."

"HMPH. JUST BE QUIET AND EAT IT."

"sure thing, bro."

The two monster princes strolled casually through the little city called Home with the nice creams they'd gotten in Snowdin. Suddenly, one of the dogs working in the royal guard ran up to them. He was panting, but probably just because he was a dog.

"Prince Sans, Prince Papyrus, there you are! Did you forget you two have a checkup today? Miss Toriel will be upset if you're late."

"heh. yeah, she's a nice lady," Sans shrugged.

"SANS, DON'T JUST SAY THAT! WE HAVE TO HURRY BACK! COME ON! I WILL RACE YOU THERE, BROTHER!"

And just as he said, the skeleton kid shoved the last of his snack into his mouth and took off sprinting to the castle, laughing maniacally. The dog guard looked back and forth between Papyrus, who was quickly disappearing from sight, and Sans, who was just standing there eating a nice cream.

"you'd better follow him. it'll be **ruff** catching up to pap, but it's not im **paw** sible."

The guard made up his mind and chased after the younger prince. Sans just leisurely finished his nice cream and then teleported to the castle. Papyrus ran up to the medical room and saw his brother leaning casually against the wall, then stomped on the floor with his soft boots.

"BROTHER, YOU CHEATED! YOU CAN'T TELEPORT DURING A RACE!"

"oh yeah. you're right, bro. i guess you win then."

"NYEH?" The anger vanished from the young skelly's face and he started beaming. "NYEH HEH HEH! THAT'S RIGHT! I, THE GREAT PRINCE PAPYRUS, WIN THE RACE!"

"good job, bro," Sans smiled and winked.

They walked into the medical room together, and the young goat lady welcomed them cheerfully. She ran several small checks on each of them: checking their eyesight and reflexes, their magic quality and quantity, their height and weight, and all the other things growing children needed to be checked on.

Toriel sat each of the boys down and had them press their faces into a little machine. "When the light turns on, tell me what you see. The slides are different, so don't worry if you don't give me the same answers. Papyrus?"

"UM, I SEE THE LETTERS Q,D,E,J, AND L."

"How about you, Sans?"

"m,o,n,r,p," he answered simply.

"Alright, next... next... Okay, now with one eye at a time. Papyrus?"

"JKR."

"Sans?"

"bvw."

"Other eye now. Papyrus?"

"AFD."

"Good. Sans?"

"..." The first prince tried to focus, but, "sorry, doc. i don't see anything."

"Still no vision in your right eye? Well, that is alright. Your left eye is perfect. Papyrus, I will need to see you again in a few days for a more detailed exam. I think your eyes take after your father's. You will need glasses, but I am not yet sure which kind."

"WOWIE! I'LL GET TO WEAR GLASSES JUST LIKE DAD DOES!"

"hey, good for you, pap. that's pretty cool."

"NYEH HEH!"

While the boys were chatting, Toriel took their hands and guided them over to a height measure and prompted the first prince to stop slouching and the second to keep his feet flat on the floor.

"Oh, look at that." The royal doctor consulted her chart. "Papyrus, you're taller than Sans already."

"I AM? WOWIE! NOW I'M THE BIG BROTHER, SANS!"

"heh. it was just a matter of time. i haven't grown for a few years now. besides, dad's tall, so you were bound to be too."

"BUT BROTHER, IF I'M TALL BECAUSE DAD'S TALL, WHY ARE YOU SO SHORT?"

"haven't i told you this already, pap? i don't have much natural HP, so my body's weak."

"OH! YOU MEAN HAVING LESS HP MAKES YOU SHORTER?"

"i guess so. at least when you have as **little** as i do it does."

"...A PUN AT A TIME LIKE THIS? SANS, YOU'RE IMPOSSIBLE. IF YOU KEEP THIS UP, I'LL DISOWN YOU."

"heh heh. sorry, bro. i don't want to be **sans** a brother."

Sans laughed as gloved fists pounded on him in fake fury.

"Now now, boys. We don't want any broken bones, do we? Your checkups are over, so you can go play now."

"ok."

"THANK YOU, MISS TORIEL!"


	9. Name The Successor

Papyrus ran into the king's office with Sans following leisurely behind him. Wingdings put down his work as soon as he heard his youngest's voice and scooted his chair back to receive a hug.

"DAD! DAD! GUESS WHAT? DOCTOR TORIEL SAYS I'M TALLER THAN SANS NOW!"

"Is that so? You're growing like a weed, Papyrus."

"OF COURSE! WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON, DAD?"

"Hm? Oh, I'm just reading some analyses of the local sediments, seeing if there are any viable areas where we can expand the caverns of the underground. Our population is bound to grow while we're down here, and I don't want everybody to feel cramped. Would you like to take a look?"

"YES!"

Little Papyrus examined the graphs and data charts with an increasingly confused look on his face, while Sans leaned to look over his shoulder. "that spot to the east of hotland looks pretty good."

"Really? I was thinking that the cold stones near Snowdin would hold together better than the mud of Waterfall or the lava of Hotland."

"i guess, but that one spot looks pretty safe though. plus, with that composition, there're probably some useful ores buried nearby."

"Hm, that is a good point. I‘m sure the workers would rather not have to dig through frozen sediments as well."

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND AT ALL. BUT IF WE DIG, EVERYONE WILL BE HAPPY?"

"Yes, Papyrus," Wingdings patted his head. "Did you doze off during your science lessons? This isn't that complex."

"I DIDN'T DOSE OFF! I'M NOT SANS!" Papyrus pushed his hand away and suddenly became timid. "I JUST... STILL DIDN'T UNDERSTAND. I'M NOT AS GOOD AT THIS SCIENCE STUFF AS YOU TWO."

"don't worry about it, pap. i'm twice your age, and dad's <i>way</i> older. you're plenty smart."

Wingdings looked at Sans comforting Papyrus and couldn't help but remember that when his older son was Papyrus's age he'd helped build the core that powered and purified all of the underground. Papyrus, on the other hand, was even slower than most kids his own age. The apple fell rather far from the tree on this one. Still, Papyrus had plenty of good traits, not least of which being his pure heart.

_I'd decided to have a second child in case the first didn't live long enough to succeed me, but I don't think Papyrus is suited to be king._

Fortunately, Sans had the Hope Device to keep him kicking. It actually had improved his energy levels... by a fraction of the amount afforded to anyone else wearing it. The important thing was that it would keep him from dying over an irritated shove, but it would have been nice if it could have stopped him from sleeping all day.

_He is the better candidate. I wonder if I should just name him my successor already._

Wingdings noticed Sans's left eye glowing an ominous blue as it bored into him, as if he'd guessed what his father was thinking about.

 _Or I'll hold off until they're both grown up. Goodness, so protective. I'm not sure Papyrus even wants to be king._ _Oh. Actually..._

"Papyrus," Wingdings intruded on his children's conversation, "if you could be anything at all when you grow up, what would you want to be?"

"HM," the little skelly held his jaw in a gloved hand, "THAT'S A GOOD QUESTION. I COULD BE THE AMAZING HEAD OF THE ROYAL GUARD! OR MAYBE A MASTER CHEF! OH! I KNOW! I'LL BE BOTH!"

"if anybody could do it, it's you, pap," Sans smiled.

Wingdings took in the information. "You wouldn't want to be king?"

"WELL, YOU'RE KING, DAD. AND SANS IS OLDER, SO HE'LL BE KING AFTER YOU GET TOO OLD. YOU'LL BOTH BE KINGS FOREVER! IT WON'T EVER NEED TO BE MY JOB."

"I see." _Well, he's settled it for us, Sans._ "In that case, once your growth spurt slows down and your bones aren't as easy to break, why don't I ask Asgore to train you to join the royal guard?"

"WOWIE! REALLY? AND CAN MISS TORIEL TEACH ME HOW TO COOK TOO?"

"Sure, as long as she agrees."

The next day, Wingdings had Captain Asgore officially announce that Sans would be the crown prince of the monster kingdom. People used the news as an excuse to throw parties all over the underground. Sans wasn't particularly thrilled about it, but he was relieved that Papyrus didn't feel bad about not being chosen.

Sans stood on the castle balcony, dressed in his royal clothes for once: a set of purple robes with white fur trim, similar to his father's. Papyrus was wearing his own royal robes standing on the opposite side of Wingdings, but he was still wearing padded clothing underneath to keep him from breaking anything due to being too energetic.

Wingdings put his hand on Sans's shoulder and whispered under Asgore's speech. "You aren't excited to be the future king of all monster kind?"

"I just think these clothes are uncomfortable," Sans shrugged. Then he whispered in a low voice, "You'd better live a long time, old man. I'm not ready for this kind of responsibility."

"I'll hog the throne for as long as I can," the king chuckled.

 


	10. Fifty Years Later

Fifty years had passed since the monsters all fled underground. A fifth area had been added to the kingdom's map after a great deal of effort. They had dug out the area west of Hotland, and it had provided abundant building materials. The monsters had decided to build a new city there; something bigger than Home. Prince Papyrus enthusiastically called it New Home, and the name stuck. A new palace had been built in New Home and the royal family had moved into it, though they occasionally visited smaller homes in other areas when they wanted a vacation.

The king had never recovered from the trauma that garbled his speech, but he seemed perfectly fine aside from that. He and the crown prince shared an interest in the sciences and often worked on projects together for fun. The second prince, Papyrus, became a skilled warrior... and an average cook.

The monster public idolized their royal family and many emulated them. Despite the peaceful times, many monsters trained themselves for combat. To compensate for the lack of enemies to fight, they created an arena in New Home where proud warriors could battle for fun. To keep the competitions safe, the competitors would wear Hope Devices, and the battle would end when their extra health bar ran dry.

Not everyone mimicked the second prince; there were many monster children who grew up aiming to be scientists. Technology was advancing faster than it ever had on the surface, and monster's lives were becoming easier.

Everyone was safe. Just about everyone was happy. A few people missed the surface, but nobody wanted to go back to that war-ridden place where savage humans still stomped about.

Fifty years of growth and prosperity.

And then the incident occured.

Word came from Home city that something gruesome had occurred. A human child had committed suicide near the old barrier entrance, and her corpse had fallen down into the underground. There was nothing about the barrier that was designed to stop humans from entering after they died, after all. Only living humans were dangerous. Dead ones...

The human became a ghost after falling. Everybody who witnessed it was extremely wary. She was a monster now, but she had been a human moments prior. Asgore himself happened to be patrolling the area at that time and saw the ghost, crying to herself while surrounded (at a safe distance) by a circle of frightened monsters.

He approached the child, got down on one knee, and held out his hand. "There there, child. You don't have to be afraid. Nobody is going to hurt you."

"I... I'm not afraid," the child wept.

"You're not? Then why are you crying?"

"I wish I'd died," she moaned. "I wanted everything to end! I hate this cruel world!"

"Well, you shouldn't cry," Asgore smiled. "You did die, after all. You are a ghost, child. A monster, like us."

"I'm... a monster?" The child finally stopped crying and looked down at her hands, seeing the ground covered in yellow flowers beneath them. She saw her twisted body lying not too far off from where she was standing.

"What is your name, child?" Asgore asked. "Mine is Asgore Dreemurr, captain of the royal guard."

The ghost girl smiled peacefully up at his furry face, her cheeks rosy. "I'm Chara."


	11. Welcome The Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, Asgore is translating for Wingdings whenever Chara needs to understand him.

"Toriel, Asgore," Wingdings signed rapidly, "I've been hearing some concerning rumors lately, and I want to hear the truth from both of you. What do the people mean when they say you've adopted a human child?"

Sans and Papyrus peeked out from opposite sides of the king's robes, feeling like they should stay out of this conversation.

"We _have_ adopted a child," Toriel stated firmly. "But she is no longer a human. She died and became a ghost." The goat woman glared with all of her might. "I hope you are not saying you would stop us if we wanted to take in a human child, Mr. Gaster."

"Toriel, please," Asgore urged her, holding his hands defensively.

The king tilted his head dismissively. "The chance should never arrive for you to take in a human. No matter the case, this child came from among humans. I want to meet her and judge her mental stability. I do not follow your blind belief that all children are innocent, Toriel."

Sans figured that he and Wingdings were the only people present who truly understood his sentiment. The king had killed as a child, so naturally, his thoughts on the matter were unique. Toriel clearly didn't grasp his meaning, as her anger just flared up further. At the point where magical flames were appearing around her, Asgore forcefully canceled out her magic with his own.

"Toriel, please, he just wants to talk to the child. And if she isn't stable, she'll just receive proper treatment and counseling—right, your majesty?" the guard captain asked almost desperately. To his relief, the king nodded.

"What, would you expect me to kill the child? Did you see me as such a savage, Toriel?"

The royal healer's temper quickly cooled off. "No, you are right. I became too defensive once children were involved. I am sorry, your majesty."

"Good. If that's settled, bring her out."

For her own safety, Toriel had hidden Chara in their bedroom, but she lowered her head and went to retrieve her now. She returned with a cute and lively little ghost girl, wearing a green striped shirt and with blood red eyes.

"Oh hey, more dead people," she waved with a smile. "I'm Chara. Nice to meet you."

Asgore cleared his throat and spoke regally. "Chara, this is King Wingdings Gaster, the ruler of the underground and all of monster kind. Behind him are his two sons. On the left is the crown prince, Sans, and on the right is the second prince, Papyrus. They are not dead humans; they are skeletons who were monsters from the start."

"Oh, really?" The girl lowered her head a little awkwardly. "Uh, sorry, Mr. King Gaster."

"It's quite alright," Wingdings raised his hand in a peaceful gesture. "If you don't mind, there are some things I'd like to ask you. You will be allowed to stay with Asgore and Toriel no matter how you answer, but I really do need you to answer honestly."

The child seemed more bashful than she had before. "Uh, okay. What do you want to ask me?"

"First, what do you think about monsters?"

Chara blinked. "Monsters, huh? I was called a monster a lot back on the surface. I like them better than humans, at least."

"Alright. Next, how do you feel about humans?"

"I HATE THEM!" The ghost's red eyes flashed brightly, and a chill filled the air. Wingdings just nodded calmly and murmured an acknowledgement.

"How did you come to fall into the underground?"

"I ran away from home and tried to die where nobody could stop me. It worked, I guess. I didn't expect to still be... around after."

Wingdings held his jaw in his bony fingers. "Hmm... She should be fine for the most part. I suspect she may need counseling from whatever traumas lay in her past, but she should settle in for a while first."

Toriel put her paw over her chest and let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, your majesty." Asgore bowed his head and repeated her sentence, while Chara awkwardly bowed at the waist.

The king turned to leave. "Then I suppose I have what I came for. Don't let me ruin your day any further."

"W-wait!" Chara suddenly called out. "Um," she looked at Sans, "I'm new around here, so, I mean, if you want to play together sometime..." she trailed off, fidgeting. Sans pointed at himself with an amused smile. "you want to play with me, kid?"

Chara’s face brightened when she found his speech intelligible, unlike the king’s. "Y-yeah, if that's okay?"

The skeleton prince shrugged. "sure, that's fine. i'll pop in sometime."

"OH! CAN I COME PLAY AS WELL, LITTLE GHOST HUMAN?" Papyrus pointed at himself and asked.

"I mean, if you want to, sure!"

Wingdings raised a nonexistent eyebrow and gave his older son an amused look. Sans caught his eye and just shrugged again.

"As long as they are willing, you may play with my children as much as you like, Chara," the king gave his blessing. "However, you've had a long day, so tonight you should rest."


	12. Eat Some Pie

Chara tiptoed through the dark kitchen, moving as silently as only a ghost could, and reached for the pie Toriel had baked last night. There was still plenty left. Asgore had left for guard duty and Toriel was bathing, so this was her chance!

"hey, kiddo. whatcha up to? tiptoeing in the dark like a **snack** thief."

Chara nearly jumped out of her ectoplasm and looked behind her to see Sans-- _Prince_ Sans-- sitting on the kitchen table and smiling down at her.

"What the FUDGE, dude?! You scared the crap out of me!"

"fudge, huh? smells more like butterscotch if you ask me." He hopped onto the floor and stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets. It was an unassuming jacket, until you realized that it was the royal family's purple color and bore their crest on the chest. "why're you so surprised to see me? i told you i'd pop in, didn't i?" The skeleton winked and Chara scowled.

"So it's fine to just barge into someone's home if you're the crown prince?" she said snidely.

"heh. i would have waited outside for you to let me in, but i thought i should give you a warning first instead."

"A warning?" Chara drew back cautiously.

"yeah. see, the thing is, my lil’ bro doesn't know how to control his volume when he gets excited."

Not a second after Sans finished talking, there was a violent pounding at the front door, along with shouting loud enough to penetrate clearly inside.

"LITTLE GHOST HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE COME TO MAKE GOOD ON OUR PROMISE TO "PLAY"!"

Chara covered her ears, not that it did any good, and Sans gave an I-told-you-so shrug. The ghost rushed to the door so fast she didn't even realize she was floating. She yanked open the door to see a tall and cheerful skeleton on the other side, dressed in shiny purple and silver armor and carrying a shiny sword at his hip.

"THERE YOU ARE, GHOST HUMAN! FEAR NOT, FOR AS YOU SEE, THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS ARRIVED!"

Papyrus saw Sans stroll into view and his jaw dropped. "SANS?! HOW DID YOU BEAT ME HERE, YOU LAZYBONES?!" The second prince crossed his arms and glared knowingly. "OH, I SEE. TELEPORTATION AGAIN, ISN'T IT? SANS, YOU KNOW THAT'S CHEATING. AND SINCE YOU CHEATED, THAT MEANS I WAS THE FIRST TO ARRIVE HERE."

"you got me there, pap."

Toriel must have heard the fuss and rushed her shower. She emerged from the bathroom with her fur still damp to check what was going on.

"Oh, it's just you boys. Have you come to play with Chara?"

"yea."

"INDEED WE HAVE, MISS TORIEL."

"i see you baked one of your famous pies, tori," Sans mentioned, provoking a glare from the would-be snack thief.

"Oh, you noticed? It's still a little early, but since you've come over to play, would you all like to have a piece?"

"YES PLEASE!"

"sure, that'd be **sweet** of you."

"Uh, yeah. Thanks, Toriel."

The goat lady served a slice for all three of them and set the table for them, then retreated to the bathroom to finish drying her fur.

Chara picked at her pie and looked at the two princes eating happily. She eyed Sans with half-closed eyes. "Spoiled, aren't you?" she said coyly.

"heh. i guess."

"NONSENSE! CERTAINLY, SANS IS LAZY, MESSY, AND SLEEPS ALL THE TIME, BUT HE STILL WORKS HARD AT HIS SCIENCE STUFF... WHENEVER I'M NOT LOOKING, APPARENTLY. AND I AM A HARDWORKING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD!"

"Science stuff? What kind of science stuff?"

Sans chuckled and summoned a latest-model Gaster Blaster and sat on its head while it floated intimidatingly. "like super cool weapons n' stuff."

"Whoa!" Chara stood up from her chair and looked at the weapon with glittering red eyes. "That's so awesome!" She clearly wanted to come closer, and Sans gave her a nod. Chara stroked the side of the blaster's "face" and beamed. "How many humans could you kill with this thing?"

Sans scratched his cheekbone with a bony index finger. "uh, in theory? a lot. but i don't really want to use these on anybody for real. i mostly just ride them like this when i’m using them."

Chara narrowed her eyes like she couldn't understand. "You... Why are you making amazing weapons if they're not to get revenge on humans?"

"as a deterrent and for self-defense," the prince said casually. "what do i need revenge on the humans for anyway?"

"For forcing you all underground? Duh." The ghost rolled her eyes.

"OH NO, GHOST HUMAN. THE HUMANS DIDN'T TRAP US DOWN HERE. WE CREATED THE UNDERGROUND AND THE BARRIER AS A SHELTER TO PROTECT US. NOW THE HUMANS CAN FIGHT AND KILL EACH OTHER ON THE SURFACE AS MUCH AS THEY LIKE, AND WE MONSTERS CAN LIVE IN PEACE AND SAFETY DOWN HERE."

"Huh." Chara looked stunned. "I was taught that the barrier was made by humans; that they won a great victory over the monsters and forced them underground."

"THAT'S SILLY, HUMAN! OUR FATHER IS MUCH TOO SMART TO BE BEATEN BY HUMANS. WE JUST RAN AWAY!"

Chara simply looked stunned. Her head gradually lowered until her fringe covered her eyes, and then she laughed darkly. "I get it now. Everything they told me about monsters on the surface was just describing human filth instead. Real monsters don't like fighting and killing; they're good."

"kid, you okay? you look like you've seen a **ghost**."

"SANS, THAT IS HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE!"

"sorry, bro. did you ex- **specter** to get mad? nah, she's fine. i can **see right through her**."

"I just died and your making jokes about it? You suck, Sans."

"heh heh. why? you like that you're not a human anymore, don't you?"

The kid paused and lowered her head again, peacefully this time. "Yeah. I want as much distance between me and those human garbage as possible."

Toriel came out of the bathroom then, dry, fluffy, and smelling of shampoo. "Alright, you three. If you've finished your pie, put the dishes in the sink."

"AS THANKS FOR THE TREAT, MISS TORIEL, I SHALL WASH THE DISHES!" Papyrus volunteered.

"That would be lovely, dear," the royal healer smiled and then knelt in front of Chara. "My child, I'm so sorry to leave you, but I have an important job to do at the castle. Will you be alright with Prince Sans and Prince Papyrus, or do you need to come with me?"

"The short one's kind of a smarta—a, a smart guy, but I think we'll be fine."

"Alright, Chara. I will trust your judgment. If you need me for any reason, the Princes can bring you to me."

"Alright. Bye, Toriel."

"Goodbye, my child."


	13. Take A Tour

After Toriel left, Chara stared at where she'd been. "Say, what does Toriel do at the palace? I know Asgore is a royal guard, but she doesn't seem like the fighting type."

"you sure about that, kid? heh. but, nah, you're right. she's the royal healer."

"I figured it would be something like that for a lady like her." Chara smiled, and then turned around, frowning. "Hey, smiley, quit calling me a kid. I'm almost thirteen, so I'm basically a teenager already."

"well, i'm older than you, so i'll just keep calling you a kid," Sans teased with his hands in his pockets.

"How much older?" the ghost demanded.

"older," Sans said dismissively.

"SANS IS FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS-OLD AND I AM FIFTY-ONE, SMALL GHOST CHILD," Papyrus explained over the sound of running water.

"Fifty?! You guys are as old as my grandparents!"

"you invited me to play because you thought i was your age, right, kid?"

Chara smirked at his teasing. "Yeah, I did. You're so short I thought you were just a brat."

"last i checked, you're not any taller than i am."

"Well I still have room to grow. You're already an old geezer."

"and you're a ghost."

That one sentence reminded Chara of a simple fact. When she realized it, she grabbed her hair and stifled a scream.

"heh heh. guess we're both shrimps forever, huh kid?"

Chara squatted down and screamed to herself, and the first prince gave her a pat on the shoulder. "hey, i'm just messing with ya, kid. since you're a ghost, you can make yourself look however you want to. you could be taller than papyrus if you felt like it."

"Really?" the girl looked up curiously. "How do I do that?"

"pfft. i dunno," the skeleton shrugged. "i'm just a skeleton. what do i know about ghost stuff? but once you get ahold of your magic, you should be able to fly and pass through walls and stuff too."

Chara's eyes sparkled with mischievous excitement.

"ALRIGHT," Papyrus interjected, "I HAVE FINISHED THE DISHES. WOULD YOU LIKE A TOUR OF THE UNDERGROUND, GHOST HUMAN?"

"A tour, huh? That sounds fun."

"FANTASTIC! LEAVE IT TO THE GREAT PAPYRUS TO SHOW YOU ALL OF THE BEST PLACES!"

The trio strolled the streets of New Home while Chara looked curiously at everything and Papyrus blathered endlessly. Sans got lazy after the first block and just rode on one of his blasters.

"SANS, YOU LAZYBONES! WOULD IT KILL YOU TO EXERCISE A LITTLE?"

"i dunno. maybe."

"WE ARE GIVING OUR NEW FRIEND A TOUR AND YOU ARE BEING RUDE!"

"i'm tired, pap."

"YOU'RE. ALWAYS. TIRED! JUST GET DOWN HERE!"

"alright, alright. you don't have to yell." Sans hopped off of his blaster and strolled a little. "happy?"

"NYEH HEH!" the second prince beamed.

Sans only lasted a few blocks before Papyrus noticed he'd fallen behind. He doubled back and found the lazy skeleton sleeping standing up in the middle of the road.

"NYEH. HONESTLY, SANS."

"I'm actually a little impressed," Chara admitted. "He doesn't **slack off** when it comes to being lazy."

"PLEASE DON'T IMITATE HIS TERRIBLE HUMOR," the second prince begged, picking his brother up to carry him piggyback style.

"Is he normally like this?"

Papyrus frowned and lowered his volume a fraction of a degree. "SANS HAS ALWAYS HAD A WEAK BODY. HE'S SMALL AND FRAIL AND TIRED ALL THE TIME. HE'S MADE PLENTY OF INVENTIONS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO HELP, BUT THEY DON'T WORK AS WELL ON HIM AS THEY DO ON EVERYBODY ELSE. AND OUR FATHER HAS HIS OWN ISSUES. SOMETIMES IT'S JUST ME TAKING CARE OF BOTH OF THEM."

"The king is sick too?"

"WELL, I WOULDN'T SAY HE'S SICK, EXACTLY. HE HAD AN ACCIDENT WHEN I WAS JUST A BABY--THAT'S WHY HE TALKS THE WAY HE DOES. SOMETIMES HE GETS BAD HEADACHES AND HAS TO STAY IN BED."

Chara kicked a pebble on the road. "Sorry. That sounds rough."

"IT'S NOTHING THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN'T HANDLE!" Papyrus pounded his armored chest. "BESIDES, EVERYONE IN THE UNDERGROUND LOVES US, SO THEY HELP OUT HOWEVER THEY CAN."

The ghost looked up at the skeleton sleeping through this whole not-so-quiet conversation. "Is it fine for Sans to become king? I mean, can he even stay awake long enough to do the job? You sound pretty responsible, and you're healthier. I know he's the older brother, but wouldn't it be better if you were the crown prince?"

Papyrus lowered his head in thought. "HMMM. TO BE HONEST, I DON'T THINK THAT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA."

"Why not?"

"IF I SAID I WANTED TO BE KING, SANS WOULD STEP DOWN WITHOUT ANY QUESTIONS ASKED, BUT I... I KNOW I'M JUST NOT AS SMART AS HE IS. BEING KING TAKES MORE THAN JUST GOOD INTENTIONS." Papyrus smiled down at the ghost child. "DON'T TELL BROTHER I SAID THAT, ALRIGHT? HE DOESN'T LIKE IT WHEN I PUT MYSELF DOWN."

"Alright, I won't tell him."


	14. Know Your Traits

When Sans woke up, he was laying in a patch of flowers, an illuminated ceiling shining down on him. He sat up and realized he was in the palace gardens back in Home.

"SO YOU'RE FINALLY AWAKE, YOU LAZYBONES," Papyrus chided. "CHARA AND I HAVE ALREADY FINISHED TOURING ALL OF THE UNDERGROUND!"

"the whole thing, bro?" Sans rubbed the back of his skull and grinned. "sorry. i didn't mean to nap that long."

Papyrus huffed, "IT'S FINE, BROTHER. I WILL FORGIVE YOU AS LONG AS YOU TELEPORT US BACK TO NEW HOME. WE ARE ALMOST LATE AND I DON'T WANT MISS TORIEL TO WONDER WHERE CHARA IS AND WORRY."

"sure thing, paps."

Sans took each of their hands and suddenly Chara's vision blurred. She felt a floating sensation different from the normal floating sensation of being a ghost. When it passed, she saw herself standing in Toriel's kitchen. She double checked her surroundings for a moment, and then her eyes settled on Sans.

"That's a really convenient power," she said sincerely.

"MY BROTHER IS THE ONLY MONSTER IN THE UNDERGROUND WHO CAN TELEPORT," Papyrus said proudly, to which his brother shrugged, wearing a dismissive grin.

"hey kid, you still don't know much about monsters and the magic we use, right? lemme teach ya something."

Sans held his hand in front of his chest, and a glowing white heart floated out. Well, it was clearly heart-shaped, but it was hanging upside down. The thing hovered over his hand and he looked at it tenderly.

"this here is my SOUL." Chara looked at the glowing object with more seriousness. "monsters can see SOULS and call them out like this. human mages can do it too, but regular humans can't. all monster SOULS look like this normally; unstained."

"You mean because it's white?" Chara wondered.

"yeah. monster SOULS are weak, and stuff tends to go bad if they get filled up with incompatible traits. on the other hand, human SOULS are much stronger, so they're usually stained a certain color. human SOULS are also upside down. weird, right? anyway, your SOUL is probably still stained with a trait. wanna see it?"

"Yeah, I want to see what my SOUL looks like."

Sans pointed his left hand at Chara's chest and his left eye flared bright blue. A little monster SOUL floated out of her, colored deep red.

"YOU HAVE A RED SOUL, CHARA," Papyrus noticed. "RED IS FOR DETERMINATION."

"Determination, huh?" Chara murmured, moving her hands under her SOUL, as if to protect it.

"no wonder you stuck around even after you died," Sans chuckled. "not all humans become ghosts, you know, but determination is a trait that doesn't like people to tell it no."

"Huh. By the way, Sans, why did your SOUL turn blue all of a sudden?"

Sans glanced down at his SOUL, which was glowing cyan, and smiled. "That's because I'm using my magic," he said. His eye stopped glowing and his SOUL returned to white. Chara's SOUL also slid back into her own body since he was no longer drawing it out. "most monsters aren't traitless, but the traits won't show unless we're using our magic a little seriously. like i said, human souls are stained. they feel so intensely that their SOULS just stay colorful all the time."

"What does your blue soul mean then? What other traits are there besides determination?"

"blue, light blue, cyan, or whatever you want to call it stands for patience."

Papyrus summoned his own soul and made his eyes flare orange along with it. "MY ORANGE SOUL STANDS FOR BRAVERY! AND FATHER IS PURPLE FOR PERSEVERANCE."

"basically, if i'm feeling patient, or pap is feeling brave, or you're feeling determined, that's more or less natural. that's safe. but, uh, if you feel yourself swimming in another emotion--take it from me, kid--you're gonna wanna take a step back and let yourself cool off before you do anything you'll regret. heh. i know you'll forget that advice when it counts, but i still had to say it."

"BROTHER, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?"

"nothing really, pap. don't worry about it."

"Awfully secretive, aren't you, Sansy?" Chara smirked mischievously. "What do you have to keep from your favorite little bro?"

"SANS?"

"don't listen to her, bro. it really isn't anything important."

"IMPORTANT OR NOT, SANS, I DON'T WANT YOU TO FEEL LIKE YOU SHOULD KEEP ANYTHING FROM ME. I'M YOUR LITTLE BROTHER, BUT I'M NOT A CHILD AND I'M NOT AN IDIOT."

Sans's eye sockets went wide for a second, then he sighed, "no, paps. you're not. if you wanna hear about it that bad, i'll tell you. once, when you were just a babybones, i was feeling kind of down about myself. dad gave me some advice that was actually pretty motivating and, for a minute, i felt determined. i thought i could make things better, but i wasn't thinking clearly. i ended up overestimating myself, doing something stupid, and now my right eye is blind and broken forever."

"YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT THAT TRAINING ACCIDENT ALL THOSE YEARS AGO? THAT'S HOW IT HAPPENED?"

"yup."

"WELL THAT EXPLAINS IT. EVEN AS A KID YOU NEVER DID STUPID THINGS LIKE THAT."

"So, you can't see out of your right eye?" Chara asked. She had noticed that it didn't glow with the left one and that it was gray instead of white when he wasn't using his magic, but she hadn't realized it was actually injured.

"nope. pretty **boneheaded** mistake, huh?" he winked. "but I wasn't the clumsy kid, was i, bro?"

Chara's gaze shifted to Papyrus and he cleared his throat. "I MAY HAVE BEEN A BIT... EXCITABLE AS A CHILD. TOO STRONG AND POWERFUL FOR MY OWN GOOD, YOU COULD SAY."

"he used to play too rough and get fractures all the time, so dad made him wear padded babybones clothes until he was a teenager and wasn't so delicate anymore."

The great Papyrus crossed his arms obstinately. "IT COULDN'T BE HELPED SINCE I WAS GROWING QUICKLY BACK THEN, BUT I HAVE SINCE OVERCOME THAT WEAKNESS. I AM A POWERFUL ROYAL GUARD NOW!"

"yeah, pap. you worked hard."

Chara continued to chat with the skeleton princes and listen to their stories until Toriel came home from work. She never got bored: the brothers had lived a long time and had plenty of fun events to recount. She was secretly glad the baton never got passed to her. As far as she was concerned, her past on the surface was something she should just forget.

"Oh my, did you two keep Chara company all day?" Toriel put a paw to her mouth and asked.

Papyrus gasped. "I FORGOT TO GO ON PATROL!"

"what do you mean, paps? you walked across the whole underground, remember?"

"YOU'RE RIGHT!" the skeleton's face brightened.

"So you took her on a tour?" Toriel smiled. "Well fooey. I should have been the one to show her around."

"WHY'S THAT?"

"because **tor** should give the tour," Sans winked. The goat lady and skeleton man broke out into laughter in unison, while Chara chuckled and Papyrus groaned. "sorry for taking that from you, tori. we didn't mean to pull the **wool** over your eyes. we didn't get your **goat** , did we?"

Toriel roared with laughter and Papyrus fumed. Chara was more laughing at the younger brother's reaction than the jokes themselves.

"I'm quite alright, Sans. You boys didn't get under my **skin**. In fact, I found it quite **humerus**. I'm sure with all the patrolling he does, Papyrus is a **bone** fide tour guide."

"I'M SORRY, CHARA, BUT I CAN'T STAND ANY MORE OF THIS! I'M GOING TO LEAVE FOR MY EVENING TRAINING. I'M AFRAID WE'LL HAVE TO PLAY AGAIN ANOTHER TIME."

"Bye, Papyrus," Chara waved, giggling as he stomped out the front door.

Sans left as well after a few more puns. "i should go to the lab and get some work done. i'll see you later, tori. you too, kid."

"Sure. Later, Sans."

"Take care of yourself, Sans."


	15. Talk About Kids

-Le Magnificent Time Skip of a few days-

"tori, you and asgore are having a kid?" Sans managed not to spill any of his coffee upon hearing the good news. It was good Papyrus didn't drink the stuff, or he would have spit it right in the goat couple's faces.

"Yes, we've thought about it long and hard, and having Chara in our house has made us want a child of our own. Seeing the two grow up and play together would make us so happy."

"That and we figured it was about time," the royal guard captain smiled and said brightly.

"THIS IS THE BEST NEWS I HAVE HEARD ALL DAY!" Papyrus shouted at a skull-splitting volume. Everybody winced and Sans gave him a soft pat on the arm.

"inside voice, papy."

"SORRY! I AM JUST SO EXCITED! I AM VERY BUSY WITH MY GUARD DUTY, BUT I WILL MAKE SURE TO COME OVER TO PLAY WITH THEM EVERY DAY!"

Sans smiled and nodded, "i'm really happy for you two. can't wait to meet the **kid**."

"Oh, Sans," Toriel chuckled. "What about either of you? You're not children anymore. Should I expect to get out my babybones checkup equipment anytime soon?"

Sans actually did spit out his coffee then. He started coughing and tried to brush off his purple jacket in a hurry.

"BROTHER! ARE YOU ALRIGHT? WAS IT TOO HOT?"

Asgore gave the first prince a sympathetic look while his wife had a good laugh. "Oh my, is that a yes?"

"sorry, tori," Sans chuckled bashfully, "but, uh, no. honestly, you're asking way too soon. dad was nearly three-hundred when he had me. pap doesn't even know what this stuff means yet."

Toriel chuckled, reminding herself that she and Asgore were almost a hundred fifty years old. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to rush you. You feel free to find love in your own time. Both of you."

***

-Le one day timeskip-

"So I hear you had an interesting run-in with Toriel and Asgore yesterday," Wingdings said, passing a test tube over to his eldest son.

"sure did," Sans replied, taking the sample without looking away from the data on his screen. "those two are finally having a kid together. pretty wild, right?"

"Not really, goats are frequently domesticated animals," the king joked smoothly. Sans's shoulders shook up and down as he laughed, and his father smiled. "But, actually, what I meant was that she brought up your romantic future, did she not?"

Sans frowned with his eyes, since his smile was rather fixed, and slowly turned to look at the king. "why?" he simply said.

"I hear you spat out your drink. It's rare for you to get flustered, so I got curious. What do you honestly think about making me some grandchildren?"

Sans looked away and told the computer to scan the new test tube he inserted, answering flatly, "i'll tell you the same thing i told her: too soon. you were five times my age when you had me, so why should i rush? we're safe in the underground, and it's not like i have any reason to hurry."

"Which is a totally reasonable response," Wingdings nodded. "But I can't help but feel that you aren't telling me everything. I mean, I could be wrong, but," Wingdings winked, "I never am."

Sans put both hands on the lab table and sighed, turning around to face Wingdings again. "dad... i've already accepted that i'll be king after you, but can we please leave the succession to pap and his kids? i... i don't want to have any children."

The king raised his bony brow. "I... Hmm..." he had seen through Sans's lie, and Sans knew it. Wingdings knew that he knew it, so he was merciful and played along. "I suppose there's no real problem with that."

Sans sighed, but there wasn't as much relief in it as Wingdings thought there could have been. "thanks, dad."

***

-Le timeskip. Now it is nighttime-

Sans hid himself in his lab. Nobody else was around, the lights were off, and it was the dead of night. The sole light shining in the room came from his computer screen. Sans stared intently at what was written there and clutched his chest, his plain white shirt bunching up in his fist. His breathing was uneven, he was sweating through his skull, and his soul and left eye were starting to pulse with an intense blue glow.

 _ugh. dumping the duty of leaving a royal heir on papyrus, i'm terrible,_ Sans dragged a hand down his face and groaned. His browser window was split down the middle. On the left were sinful images of human women, and on the right were anatomical studies on them. What did they look like? How did their bodies work? What made them feel good? How did they conceive children?

Many hours of utterly wasted research, basically.

There would never be any living humans in the underground, and Sans wasn't stupid enough to go to the surface. He despised humanity along with the rest of monster kind; humans were cruel savages who didn't deserve to stand on equal ground with noble monsters!

But why?! Why did he find them so—!

Sans felt his soul throbbing and hated himself. What was he expecting, anyway? Humans and monsters couldn't have children together. He didn't have any of the necessary parts to even lie together the way a human would want to. Not to mention, skeletons were near the top of the list of monsters humans found unpleasant; they reminded them of death and mortality, basically the last things a human wanted to be thinking about when they were looking to have a good time.

He didn't have a chance in the world, and he had nothing to gain from even a hypothetical relationship.

_why couldn't i just be attracted to a nice skeleton lady? or a goat, or a spider, or any other kind of monster!_

Sans sighed and forced himself to stand up from his desk, strolling over to his work bench. He took up a screw driver and tightened some screws on an odd machine. The shell was done so he plugged some cables from his computer into it and quickly typed up some code. Three hours later, the machine was up and running, hovering in the air, and a few more empty coffee cups were littering his desk.

Sans pressed a button on a small controller and blue magic built up around the machine. In a moment, it teleported to the surface. Sans checked his computer and watched the live video feed. He couldn't resist knowing what was going on up there these days. He knew it was stupid to indulge this part of him, but he really couldn't resist.

 


	16. Relax With Friends

-Le several weeks timeskip-

Sans poured over the latest data sent by his observation robots: information from history books it had photographed, political geographical information, the latest cultural analyses. It had only been fifty years since monsters had left the surface, but that was an entire generation for humans. A few things had changed, though nothing was majorly different from what he remembered.

Sans was honestly a little surprised to see how slowly technology was progressing on the surface—they didn't even have computing devices there yet, let alone computers. Sans formed a hypothesis that the peace underground allowed monsters to focus on creativity and invention, while the surface was still incredibly dangerous. Humans had to worry about bad weather, environmental disasters, food shortages, wild predatory beasts, and other humans, while monsters faced none of that. There was also the surprising disadvantage that their wide area dropped on them: it was difficult to spread information and gather intelligent people.

Well, things progressing slowly was good for Sans. He didn't have all day to look over the data that constantly flowed in. The skeleton stood up from his desk and traded his lab coat for his favorite purple hoodie. He grabbed his half-empty coffee mug and teleported to the courtyard garden in the palace in New Home. Asgore tended this place on his days off, along with a similar garden in the Home palace and one in his and Toriel's back yard. Artificial sunlight flooded down from the ceiling to keep the surface flowers healthy. Playing in the middle of the patch was Chara, Papyrus, and a little baby goat monster in a green onesie.

"heya pap. hey, chara. hey, asriel."

"SANS! GOOD OF YOU TO MAKE IT, BROTHER!"

"You're late as usual, Sans," Chara smirked.

"I was catching up on some documents I had to read," he answered, rubbing his tired eye sockets.

"OH! WAS IT ABOUT THE EXCAVATION?" Papyrus asked excitedly.

Sans thought back to a conversation they'd had almost a year ago now.

_"BROTHER, SOME PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE CASTLE WERE TELLING ME ABOUT WHAT THEY MISS FROM THE SURFACE. SOME THINGS CALLED THE SUN AND STARS THAT LIT UP THE SKY. DID YOU EVER GET TO SEE THEM?"_

_Sans reached up to pat his little brother's head. He couldn’t reach, so he patted his shoulder instead. "yeah, bro. i did."_

_"I WANT TO SEE THEM TOO, BROTHER."_

_"well, pap, you know monsters can pass freely through the barrier, but there's humans up there. it isn't safe."_

_"I KNOW THAT. I WAS WONDERING IF YOU AND DAD COULD MAKE A NEW SKY DOWN HERE. THEN EVERYONE COULD SEE THE SUN AND STARS SAFELY WHENEVER THEY WANT!"_

_Sans had stopped to think about it, then lowered his head, grinning softly, "for you, bro? anything."_

And so Sans had talked about it with Gerson and Gaster and they'd come up with a way to make a sky in the underground. It involved harnessing the natural light and warmth of Hotland, digging a new area underneath it, and making lots of modifications to the ceiling. They couldn't dig down through the lava, so the plan was to dig under New Home and then work their way back under Hotland. They were getting to a point in the planning and budgeting that they were about ready to start digging.

"no, pap, it was something else, but the excavation should start in about a month. dad and i have finished just about all the preparations. we just need some time for the tools and workers to make their way here."

 _i need to run diagnostics on the big drills tonight_ , Sans thought, sipping the last of his coffee.

"What excavation?" Chara asked.

"SANS, DAD, AND GERSON ARE GOING TO MAKE A NEW AREA UNDER HOTLAND WHERE WE CAN HAVE A SUN AND SKY UNDERGROUND!" Papyrus shouted with glee.

"That sounds impossible," the ghost stated plainly.

Sans shrugged and peered into his empty coffee cup, setting it down and lounging on his side in a pile of petals. "it's gonna be a pain, but it will make a lot of monsters a lot happier." He held his hand to his mouth and yawned, "and paps is too young to remember what the sky looked like, so i wanna show it to him."

Chara looked at him with wide red eyes and then chuckled. "You can be cool sometimes too, huh Sansy?" However, only faint snoring answered her.

"OH, BROTHER," Papyrus sighed.

 


	17. Engineer A Sky

Wingdings sat at the desk in his room, propping his head up with his hand while he examined some documents. It was "nighttime" so the lights in the city had been shut off, but he had a little yellow lamp on his desk to help him see.

He was up too late, and he knew it because the scars on his skull were beginning to throb painfully. He reached for a mug on his desk. It was white with "THE MOST GREATEST DAD" painted on it in orange in Papyrus's large but neat handwriting. In little and kiddish blue writing beside it were the four letters "ster". DADster; a pun on their familial relationship and family name, and a very low-effort way for Sans to contribute. Papyrus insisted his older brother had ruined the cute gift, but it had immediately become the king's favorite.

Was he happy that his children had gone out of their way to make him something as a show of affection? Did he prize the mug on its sentimental value? Of course not. Wingdings didn't experience emotions like those. He had his own reasons for favoring this mug over others. He knew that stating those reasons, somehow, would be considered disrespectful to their feelings while they were making it, and so he kept them to himself. Wingdings kept a lot of things to himself.

Unfortunately, the mug was empty; no coffee to wake him up and drive off his headaches for a short time.

The king tried to focus back on the documents, but his vision was blurry from lack of sleep and his glasses weren't helping compensate for it.

He heard footsteps from outside his door. They were too light to be from an armored guard, and the only other person likely to be up at this hour was Sans. _He will notice the light from under my door and realize I'm still awake and working. Will he be lazy and ignore me or check in out of curiosity?_

A minute passed and Sans didn't enter his room. _I suppose he's gone to his lab then_ , Gaster turned his eyes back to the papers and jumped when he felt a magical release beside him.

"heya, pops. shouldn't you be in bed?"

Gaster looked over his shoulder and saw his eldest son with a hot pot of coffee in his hand. Sans noticed his gaze and chuckled.

"if you're not going to bed soon, i thought you might want some."

"That was very thoughtful of you, Sans," the king smiled and held out his mug. He watched the brown liquid flow and chuckled internally. _Sans has the least reason to be considerate toward me, but he is anyway. It's constantly throwing off my expectations. He did once say he admired my deliberate kindness. Could he be emulating me?_

"you're wrong, dad," Sans said suddenly. "if you think i'm just copying you like some babybones, you're wrong."

"Now how did you know what I was thinking?"

"i've been reading you since i was eight, dad. are you really asking that?"

"Sheh heh heh. No." _No matter how sly I get, Sans just gets sharper. He'll be quite the king someday._ "So then, may I ask why?"

"because if i didn't, i would be disrespecting all the effort you put in. you can appreciate that on principle, right?"

"Yes," Wingdings nodded and took a sip of the hot beverage. When he felt the caffeine enter his system he looked back down at the papers only to see they weren't there. The king turned around to see Sans flipping through the documents, the same silly grin as always plastered to his face.

"ya got a pen, pops?" the first prince asked, holding out a hand without looking away from the documents. Wingdings chuckled and handed him a writing utensil, smiling while Sans scratched a few notes down. "heh. done."

Wingdings took the papers back and admired the notes his son had made. His handwriting was a little sloppy, but his logic was sound. When Wingdings was this tired, it was no wonder his nearly nocturnal son could crunch numbers better than he could.

"I should be in bed," the king chuckled, making Sans grin.

"isn't that what i said?" The crown prince took his dad's coffee mug and poured the contents back into the pot. "i'll be needing this. you just go to sleep already. gerson and i are gonna need your help tomorrow."

"Yes, I know," Wingdings sighed pleasantly. "You win, Sans. I'll get some sleep."

***

The next day, three of the best scientific minds in the underground directed dozens of workers in installing many strange mechanisms into the ceiling of the area excavated underneath Hotland. It took a week to make sure everything was properly secured and in working order, and then the royal scientist took the liberty of starting the system up. It seemed like every monster in the underground had come to witness this moment.

The cold silver panels of metal came to life. A bright blue sky spread out over the ceiling, dotted and splashed with fluffy white clouds that rolled lazily over the surface. Directly overhead, a ball of light so bright you couldn't look at it blazed. It showered the large empty cavern with light and warmed the faces of the monsters staring up at it. It was the sky and the sun, right here in the underground.

Everyone had been really passionate working on this project; the artificial sky was as true to life as they could make it. There would be sunny days, cloudy days, and even rainy days where water would be funneled from Waterfall to drip through tiny holes in the sky panels. Over the course of the day, the sun would move across the sky, and at night the stars would show, with all the constellations exactly where they should be.

At the same time, Sans and Wingdings looked at Papyrus to see his reaction. His expression that was so happy tears had started to gather filled them with pride. The father and son shared a look and a small high five.

"IT'S MUCH... MORE THAN WHAT I WAS EXPECTING. YOU THREE WORKED VERY HARD FOR THIS. THANK YOU."

"like i said, bro: anything for you."

"I concur with your brother," Gaster grinned.

Chara and Asriel trotted over to give their thanks and congratulations. "So this is the sky?" The four-year-old goat child was nearly as tall as his older sister already. "It's amazing!"

"glad ya like it, kid."

Even Chara smiled genuinely, "Sometimes I forget how amazing magic can be. It looks just like I remember."

"ain't magic, kid," Sans thrust his hands in his pockets and peeked at her.

"Oh, I forgot," the ghost rolled her eyes, "you're a magic talking skeleton of _science_."

Sans pointed a finger gun at her and winked. "exactly."

Toriel and Asgore soon followed after their kids.

"It's wonderful, your majesty," Toriel bleated happily.

"It really is. I would love to put a new garden down here," Asgore put his furry hand around his wife's shoulder.

"Of course," the king nodded and signed. "But first, I think the people would like a few words to commemorate the occasion. Asgore, old friend, would you mind?"

"Not at all, your majesty."

And the newest area in the underground, Skylight, was officially announced.

 


	18. Bet On Puzzles

It was late at night and the first prince was making a quick run from his lab to his room to grab some instant coffee packs he’d forgotten. Yes, _his_ lab. By now he had officially commandeered the basement section of Gerson’s lab for his own uses. He had the keys to it and everything.

_“Wahaha. I would retire and leave the duties of royal scientist to you, but you’re already the crown prince, and you can’t exactly employ yourself. Still though, you deserve a workspace of your own. The basement’s cleared out now that Skylight’s ceiling is finished, so I’ll let you have it.”_

It was nice to have a personal space to work in, but he would still clear everything from his computer whenever he left the room. Being the only monster in the underground who could teleport wouldn’t ease his sense of caution at all.

When Sans stepped out of his room, he decided to take a short stroll to Papy’s room; make sure his bro hadn’t tossed his sheets off again, and possibly read him a bedtime story if he was having trouble sleeping.

There was no shame in a fifty-year-old skeleton falling asleep to his brother’s bedtime stories—not when he trained so hard each day that he would dream of sparring and wake up thinking he was about to be hit. Sleep troubles seemed to run in the family, as each of the Gasters had their own little difficulties in the area.

As Sans had half expected, the door to Papyrus’s room had a sliver of light shining under it. The first prince gave a little knock and identified himself, then entered once he had permission. To his surprise, Papyrus wasn’t lying tensely in bed or swinging his sword in the middle of the room to burn off some extra energy; he was sitting at his desk, reading a textbook while fiddling with some metal scraps.

“you’re up late, paps. whatcha doin’?”

“HELLO SANS! I WAS THINKING ABOUT THE WONDERFUL SKY YOU ALL MADE AND HOW THE SUN AND CLOUDS MOVED ACROSS THE SKY, AND I WAS CURIOUS. I MANAGED TO FIND THIS BOOK ON PUZZLE CONSTRUCTION AND STARTERS KIT, AND I’M RATHER ENJOYING PUTTING IT TOGETHER!”

“really, paps? you like puzzles?”

“POSSIBLY. I THINK I MIGHT. I SUPPOSE I ALSO THOUGHT I COULD CONNECT MORE WITH YOU AND DAD IF I DID SOMETHING WITH MY HEAD FOR ONCE. STARS KNOW NEITHER OF YOU ARE GOING TO PICK UP EXERCISING ANYTIME SOON.” The lanky skeleton prince fiddled with two parts and then squinted down at the textbook’s explanation. “BUT, MY WORD, THIS FONT IS HARD TO READ.”

Sans managed to wipe the surprised look off his face and settle into an easy grin, strolling around Papyrus and opening his top desk drawer. Inside was a glasses case with a pair of glasses that still had bits of tape stuck to them. He slid them onto his brother’s face and pressed the tape to his skull so they stayed, and Papyrus blinked his eye sockets in surprise.

“OH! THAT’S MUCH BETTER! I FORGOT I HAD THESE! I SUPPOSE IT’S BEEN LONGER SINCE I DID ANYTHING LIKE THIS THAN I THOUGHT.”

“no sweat, bro. so are those instructions **clear** enough for ya?”

“ACTUALLY, THEY’RE NOT AS DIFFICULT AS I EXPECTED THEM TO BE.” The second prince missed the pun; he was too focused on what he was doing to notice it. “I’VE ALREADY GOTTEN THAT SIMPLER ONE TO WORK. IT’S MUCH EASIER THAN COOKING MAGIC.”

Sans picked up a little puzzle cube off his brother’s desk and spun in around in his hands a few times, deftly solving it. It opened to reveal a hollow compartment, but there was nothing inside yet. “heh. not bad, bro. you already know plenty of combat strategy. if you throw puzzles in there too we wouldn’t even need the barrier to keep humans out of the underground.”

“OH, BROTHER, YOU JEST. BUT I DO APPRECIATE THE COMPLIMENT. DO YOU THINK EVENTUALLY I COULD MAKE A PUZZLE EVEN YOU COULDN’T SOLVE?”

“i’m sure you could, paps.”

“SHALL WE BET SOMETHING ON IT?”

Sans looked at his straight-laced brother in surprise. “do you have something in mind?”

“IF I CAN BEST YOU WITH A PUZZLE OF MY OWN MAKING, YOU WILL MAKE A MAGICAL CONSTRUCT WEAPON FOR ME TO USE. HOW DOES THAT SOUND?”

Papyrus was a talented fighter: skilled with bullet magic, blue magic, some orange magic, and even the sword, but he had great trouble controlling magical constructs. The one time Sans had let him use one of the blasters, a wall in the palace had been completely taken out. In other words, making a magical construct weapon Papyrus could use meant making one that was practically independent once summoned. It was something Sans had been putting off due to the complexity of the task and the fact that Papyrus seemed fine without one.

A soft grin stretched across the first prince’s face. “you don’t need to win a bet for that, paps. if you want one, i’ll make it for you.”

“I WANT TO EARN IT, SANS. I KNOW IT WILL BE HARD WORK FOR YOU. I WOULD EARN IT BY DEMONSTRATING MY PROWESS, BUT I DON'T HAVE ANY OR I WOULDN'T NEED TO TAKE THIS ROUNDABOUT METHOD. BUT ANYWAY, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE FOR YOUR END OF THE BET?”

Sans chuckled. What he wanted didn’t matter. Literally. The only way he could win this bet was if Paps gave up and admitted defeat, but the second prince was no quitter.

“if i win, i’ll tell you then.”

“HM. THAT’S A LITTLE UNORTHODOX, BUT I WILL ALLOW IT.”

“great. i’m going to the lab for a while. i’ll see you in the morning, paps.”

“I REALLY WISH YOU WOULDN’T STAY UP ALL NIGHT, BROTHER. I CAN’T SPEND TIME WITH YOU WHEN YOU NAP ALL DAY.”

“heh. bro. i can’t nap all day if i’m not spending time with you.”

“SHOULD I FEEL INSULTED OR THE OPPOSITE? YOU DON'T FIND ME BORING, DO YOU, SANS?”

“impossible, pap. you’re the coolest guy i know.”

“NYEH HEH. THAT’S RIGHT! AND I'LL BE EVEN COOLER WHEN I'VE MASTERED THE ART OF PUZZLES.”

Sans grinned and shut the door to his brother’s room, teleporting directly into his lab the moment after. The lights were off and there were bits of machinery scattered across every available surface. The sky project had been finished, but Sans thought he could drag enough energy to the neighboring area they’d dug out in the process to make a simple night sky, so he was tinkering with that when he had time.

Aside from the bits and bobbles made for that, there were half-finished surveillance robots and magical armament prototypes lying around as well. Several of them had a good chance of misfiring if they were touched the wrong way, so it was good others weren’t allowed in here anymore.

Naturally, the first thing the first prince did when he arrived was boot up his main computer and enter several long passwords to access the latest data from his one functioning surveillance robot on the surface. As usual, not much had changed since the previous night. However…

_that tribe’s at war again, huh?_

After the monster kingdom fled beneath the earth, the human kingdoms that had threatened them fought over the newly available land. Now, fifty years later, they had all broken apart into dozens of small tribes that seemed to be constantly fighting. Each tribe had their own unique customs, and Sans had been able to figure out which one Chara was likely from. Her appearance and an assumption that her tribe mustn’t be far from where she’d fallen after dying had been enough for him to go on.

 _poor fuckin’ kid,_ he thought not for the first time.

He hadn’t breathed a word of it to anybody; Chara didn’t want to bring up her past and he wasn’t an asshole. And neither was the kid, even if she could be a little abrasive.

Sans wiped the data after memorizing it and turned his attention to some of his other projects. He worked until the lights in the city were on and he was out of coffee, teleported to where he knew he could find Papyrus doing some early training, and fell asleep on a bench watching him. Pap would wake him up again later for breakfast, then they would hang out with the kids for a bit and Sans would nap through most of that. So on and so forth throughout the day. It was business as usual in the underground.

 


	19. Cultists On The Surface

Chara woke up with her room still plunged in darkness, panting even though she didn’t need to breathe and dripping red magic sweat off of her ectoplasmic face. She looked older than when she’d first fallen down; taller with more mature features, but her general appearance and “clothes” had always stayed the same. Her brown hair was cut in a short bob with bangs and she wore a green and yellow striped shirt with black pants. Of course, all of it was just aesthetics, since she was a ghost.

She wouldn’t have even changed that much, but she wanted to “grow up” with her little brother.

Looking over and seeing his peacefully sleeping face helped Chara recover from the shock of her nightmare. How long had it been since she’d dreamed of the surface like that? Sometimes she thought she could still feel the sting of a whip on her shoulder blades, even though her scars and body were gone.

Her little brother was eleven years old already. Or, more like he was _only_ eleven years old, but he was already nearing six feet tall with sharp horns growing on his furry white head. Some monsters grew up so fast.

 _And some don’t,_ she thought, giggling to herself. The two skeleton princes she’d befriended when she was first reborn as a monster hadn’t changed a bit since the day she’d met them. They both still acted like children in different ways, and Sans even looked like one. Sadly, she couldn’t mock his height by holding things out of reach; he had dozens of magical ways around that. Papyrus was too lovable to tease (much), even for her, so she settled for teasing Asriel instead. It was more fun lately since his magic was adjusting and making him more irritable.

Chara cast another loving look at her little brother’s face and crawled back under her covers to go back to sleep. Before lunch, the princes would come over to play (or nap) as usual, and she thought enough time had passed for her to dangle a particular topic in view of their eye sockets.

***

It was Saturday night, and the Gaster family had gathered in the palace for a fun evening of games and puzzles. While mulling over his pieces in a tactical board game, Papyrus risked bringing up something from earlier that day.

“DAD, I HAVE A QUESTION. IF YOU KNEW ABOUT THE WAR TWO YEARS BEFORE IT STARTED, WHY DIDN'T YOU TRY TO STOP IT FROM HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE?”

“Has Chara been giving you strange thoughts again?” The king laughed and moved his pieces without much hesitation. “In my three hundred year rule on the surface I diffused over seventy wars before they could start. The humans are constantly looking for someone to fight, and I didn’t want monster kind to be constantly threatened. We’ve had half a century of peace thanks to my decision to finally run away.”

“I’M GLAD; I HAD HOPED IT WAS SOMETHING LIKE THAT. SO WHAT ARE THE HUMANS DOING NOW THAT MONSTERS AREN'T AROUND FOR THEM TO FIGHT WITH?”

“Who knows?” Wingdings asked coyly. “Perhaps you should ask your brother about that. He’s been spying on the surface, after all.”

Sans clicked his teeth and accidentally knocked over the piece he was trying to pick up. “figures you’d know.”

“SANS? WHY WERE YOU SPYING ON THE HUMANS?”

The first prince shrugged and took his turn. “i just wanted to know what they’ve been up to, same as you, bro.”

Wingdings chuckled knowingly, but Papyrus accepted the answer cheerfully. “WELL I'M GLAD YOU DID. WHAT ARE THINGS LIKE UP THERE THESE DAYS?”

“let’s see, two tribes were destroyed a couple months ago, and the survivors managed to not get enslaved. last i checked they were forming a new tribe near the bottom of the mountain.”

“SO THEY HAVE A TRIBAL SOCIAL STRUCTURE! HOW FASCINATING! THOUGH I’M SAD TO HEAR THEY’VE TAKEN TO FIGHTING EACH OTHER.”

“it makes me sad too, paps,” Sans said quietly.

The youngest Gaster turned his focus to the board and gazed intently at his pieces. While he was distracted, Sans eyed their father, signing, “how much do you know?”

“I know why I’m not going to get any grandkids from you,” the old man chuckled and signed back, making Sans flush bright blue.

Papyrus finished his turn and the secret conversation went on hold until the order came back to him.

The crown prince subtly but quickly signed, “i thought you would be upset if i told you. i know how you feel about humans.”

“It’s not like there aren’t any good humans out there,” the king smiled. “If they’ve amended their ways by the time the barrier falls, I won’t object to you dating around. Just be smart about it.”

Sans lifted his hands to say something, but they wouldn’t move. He could only stare at the king’s scarred face in stunned silence. Finally, some movement caught his eye as Papyrus signed to the king, “YOUR TURN, DAD!”

The first prince squeezed his hands in his lap and blushed. “uh, pap, did you catch any of that?” he asked aloud.

Papyrus tilted his head innocently, “EVERY WORD. WHY?”

Sans groaned from pure embarrassment while his father chuckled from the opposite side of the board, moving a final piece into place. “I believe that’s game, boys.”

***

Sans went down to his lab that night expecting nothing but the usual mildly interesting reports from the surface. He quickly found that that wasn’t what was waiting for him. His attention was drawn and focused the moment he saw human activity so close to the entrance to the barrier. He worried they were trying to find a way inside, despite no humans having made any efforts toward that end in decades, but even that wasn’t what was going on.

A few dozen humans were gathered, holding flowers and jugs of alcohol. They were a somewhat scruffy bunch, but there were friendly looks on their faces. A moment was all he needed to recognize them as members of the new tribe forming at the base of the mountain. Four humans stood near the front of the group, with one more kneeling toward the barrier even in front of them. That human was dressed in a simple hemp cloth and kept their face pressed almost into the dirt and appeared to be saying something.

It was rare that Sans checked the audio data his surveillance robots returned, but this time he did.

_“Oh merciful and kind monsters who live buried beneath the earth, we fragile humans adore you!”_

He hadn’t even heard two sentences and shivers were already trailing up his spine.

 _“We adore you!”_ The crowd behind the speaker echoed and Sans shivered again.

_“For your magic blessing that protects us from peril, we thank you!”_

_“We thank you!”_

_“We beg you to cradle the souls of our fallen friends, and to keep them safe from harm!”_

_“We beg you!”_

_“Dear, benevolent monsters, we know your compassion is boundless, but we offer our tributes to strengthen you and ease your burden!”_

_“Please accept it!”_

The speaker finally stood from his place kneeling on the dirt and beckoned forth the four people standing near the front. Every one of them was injured somehow, and most looked like they could barely stand. Each of the four knelt down in front of the barrier, and Sans felt deep worry worming its way into his SOUL. Just as he feared, the speaker took up a blade from one of the people in the crowd and stepped up behind the four kneeling people. One by one, before Sans could even fully process it, he slit each of their throats.

The first prince’s mouth gaped open. He held a hand out helplessly to the screen, wanting to interfere but knowing this event had already occurred hours ago. He watched in shocked horror as blood pooled onto the soil and four colorful human SOULS slowly rose from their bodies.

_“Take these, blessed monsters, and gather the strength to protect all the others which come to you unexpectedly as mankind lives foolishly upon the earth! May you bless us with your magic and love as we strive to be better than we are! We adore you, merciful monsters!”_

_“We adore you!”_

And for the next fifteen minutes, the crowd of humans stood around their murdered kin and sang songs, until the four souls slowly faded and sank into the ground. The humans all cheered and turned around to go back to their fledgling village, carrying the bodies of the fallen with them, but leaving the blood and fading souls behind.

Sans didn’t know what he’d just witnessed. He honestly didn’t know. His mind felt like it was filled with white static, and he didn’t even know if he was still sitting upright in his chair.

“...fuck. fuck! _what the_ _fuck_?”

His skull started to come out of its haze and he checked the live footage near the barrier entrance. There was no one in sight, so he teleported there and looked around frantically, trying to find where those bloodstains were in the dark of night. He felt a squelching under his boot and knew he’d found it, hopping back and scraping his shoe against the grass while desperately trying not to vomit. The monster prince knelt down in front of the acrid earth and held his shaking hand out in panicked worry. His left eye glowed weakly and four little lights floated up through the soil. They trembled in fear, but drifted into his arms like he was the only fire in a snowstorm.

Sans hugged the SOULs to his rib cage and teleported back to his lab. He could feel their presence weakening and scrambled to throw something together to keep them stable. Wingdings had once harnessed the power of human SOULs to make one-time use magic amplifiers that were used in making the barrier, and Sans had read those research notes. In forty minutes, he had four little magic containers that would keep the SOULs from shattering for at least a few days.

Sans plopped down in his chair and let out a long and shaky sigh, leaning back as far as the seat back let him and covering his face with a skeletal hand.

“stars, why?”

 


	20. Emotionless Support

Sans dragged his hand down his face, drawing out the sound of bone scraping bone. He looked at the four human SOULs being kept stable in four cylindrical containers, then glanced at the clock on the wall, noting the ungodly hour. He let out his second long sigh of the night.

The souls were delicate and he didn’t want to move them, but he also didn’t want to leave them unattended for even a moment. Those containers were rushed work, and even though Sans could usually take pride in the quality of his creations, he wasn’t confident they wouldn’t suddenly malfunction.

After a third, smaller sigh, Sans took out his cellphone and selected a number from his contacts.

***

Wingdings woke from his somewhat fitful sleep to a positively screeching noise. At least, it sounded that way until his head cleared up a bit. The king clutched his fractured skull with one hand and reached for the phone on his nightstand with the other.

“Sans?” he asked, not bothering to check the caller ID. Only his own children could understand him without the use of sign language, and only Sans would be up at two o’clock in the damn morning.

“hey, dad,” an uncharacteristically strained voice came out of the speakers. “i know it’s late, but can you come down to the lab? something happened. i… i don’t know how to deal with it.”

Wingdings sat up straighter in his bed. Even as a child, Sans had always been overly independent, taking care of everything on his own. If he ever asked for help, it was because he truly couldn’t manage alone. Now that he was an experienced and accomplished adult, anything he couldn’t handle alone was serious business.

“Are you hurt?” the king asked, throwing his sheets back and standing up. A spike of pain hit his skull from moving too quickly and he clutched it, swaying, but he managed to stay upright.

“i’m not hurt,” Sans answered sincerely. “technically, there aren’t any lives on the line? it’s hard to explain over the phone. fuck, i’m still processing.”

Whatever it was, it didn’t sound good. “I’m on my way, Sans.” Wingdings ended the call and shoved his phone in his robe pocket. He didn’t bother to get dressed in proper clothes and immediately started on his way to the lab. Sans didn’t offer to teleport him, so he assumed it was an issue he couldn’t take his eyes off of. Or perhaps he couldn’t move? He said he wasn’t hurt.

Wingdings arrived as soon as he could and made a beeline for the lab basement that was his son’s territory. He knocked on the heavy metal door, “Sans? I’m here. Can you open the door?”

To his relief, the door swung open, but the king’s anxiety resurfaced when he saw the positively haggard look on his son’s face.

“hey, dad.” The first prince tried to wear a normal smile, but it looked incredibly painful. He stepped aside to let Wingdings in, allowing the king to glimpse the four human SOULs sitting contained on the back counter. “so, i saw something pretty messed up. heh.” There was no joy in that laugh.

The king stared with his sockets as wide as they could go and stepped just far enough inside that Sans could close the door. He stared at the SOULs, noticing that they weren’t in immediate danger of shattering. When he could finally tear his eyes away, he looked back at his son’s face. Every trace of his usually cool and composed demeanor was gone, shredded into messy ribbons that only further tangled his expression.

The king composed himself, walked further into the lab, and pulled out a chair for himself to sit on. He prepared another one and gestured for Sans to take it. The first prince practically collapsed into it. His legs were shaking. It was hard to tell with the dim lighting, but his complexion wasn’t looking so good either.

“Walk me through it step by step,” he ordered calmly.

Sans started explaining what he’d seen and heard on the recording. First, his voice was just a little shaky, then he started trembling, and by the end he was sobbing. Wingdings wished he could understand why—truly understand—but he did his best. He moved his chair closer and put an arm around his son’s back, giving him a shoulder to cry on.

The story with the apparently monster-worshipping human cultists was disturbing, but as far as Wingdings could tell that was only a smaller part of what was troubling his son. He didn’t think it was the death of humans that got to him, considering he must have seen plenty of recorded deaths before. Was it the way that they were killed? Was it why they were killed? Did it have to do with the proximity of their deaths to the shelter? Or maybe he thought he could have prevented it somehow if he had done something differently.

A furrowed look of confusion settled on the king’s face as he realized that he truly didn’t know. Whatever Sans was feeling right now was too complex for him to reason through with so little information. Feeling stuck, the king just let the boy cry into his shoulder and kept rubbing his humerus with a reassuring grip, his skull turning a thousand miles a minute.

“You… um,” Wingdings cursed to himself. None of his trains of thought were going anywhere. What sort of reassurance wouldn’t make Sans feel worse? What did he want to hear? “I’m sorry? No. Good job?” He absently scratched at the scar on top of his skull with his free hand and sighed apologetically. “I… don’t know what you’re feeling to know how to respond.”

Sans laughed through one of his sobs and moaned into his father’s robe. “i don’t know what i’m feeling either, but it hurts.”

Wingdings looked down at his trembling child, frowned, and held him more tightly. “I’m here for you, Sans.”

The prince’s sobbing intensified, and the king nearly said something else in a hurry, but the way Sans held him tighter made him think he had said the right thing after all, so he didn’t move or speak and just let the boy cry. After a long while, they were finally ready to talk about the souls.

“i used what i remembered from your notes to make some containers for them,” Sans sniffed, rubbing a last magical tear out of his eye socket. “i’m not too confident in how well they’ll hold up. i don’t know what to do with them after this—i’m not even sure why i went to get them.” He looked worryingly somber for a moment before recovering again.

“Well,” Wingdings pondered, “there are a lot of potential uses for a human SOUL, and we didn’t have any on hand until now. Perhaps you could simply study them and see if anything pans out.”

Sans turned to look at the four colorful souls, floating quietly in their containers as if they were sleeping. They had seemed so afraid when they sought help in his embrace. Did he really save them from breaking just for them to become research materials? Not to mention, they had been left fading for hours, and their colors weren’t so bright anymore.

Did they have any consciousness left to care about any of that?

“i’ll consider it. in the meantime, could you help me make some more permanent containers for them?”

“Well, it’s certainly been a good while, but I’ll give it my best go. Mind if I borrow a lab coat and some coffee?”

“help yourself.”

The king chuckled and traded the robe over his pajamas for a lab coat over his pajamas. He looked the part once he had a coffee cup in his hand.

Wingdings chuckled again, “This feels a bit like one of our father son science projects.”

Sans smiled weakly, hoping for the world that this wouldn’t be a recurring project.

 


End file.
